The volume of your board is a measurement of the total amount of space that your board occupies. If your board were a perfect cube, then a simple length x width x height calculation would be all we’d need. However, as your board is full of curves and concaves, the whole thing is a little more complicated. In the past, the only way of knowing, was to dunk your board in a bath, and see how much water was displaced and this is why we normally measure surfboard volume in Cubic Litres rather than Cubic Inches.

WHY VOLUME IS IMPORTANT ?

Volume matters because it gives us a realistic idea of how big our boards are. Ever since the “Retro Revolution” of the early 2000’s, people have been riding an increasingly diverse range of surfboards, and now the standard 3 dimensions (length, width and thickness) don’t give us enough information to decide if a board will work for us or not, and you can shape 3 boards with the same dimensions, that look and surf very differently.

If you’re surfing in warm water and good waves, the lower end of the scale is recommended. If you’re surfing in poor conditions, looking for help in crowded situations, or wearing thick wetsuits, lean towards the higher end of the range that you fall into.